ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
When you think of Christmas, you might picture a model train looping around a Christmas tree, and there's a good chance the train is made by Lionel. The company is celebrating its 125th anniversary. Reporter Jeff Lunden, a model railroad enthusiast himself, takes us into the world of this popular American brand.
(SOUNDBITE OF TOY TRAIN CHUGGING)
JEFF LUNDEN, BYLINE: Just like kids for generations, Landon Tennant looked longingly at a streamlined Lionel Santa Fe engine as it went around a tiny layout with houses, mountains and bridges at Long Island's TrainLand hobby shop.
LANDON TENNANT: I think I want to get, like, another one of the locomotives because those look pretty cool like that one.
(SOUNDBITE OF TOY TRAIN CHUGGING)
LUNDEN: It was National Lionel Train Day, and Lenny the Lion, Lionel's mascot, was on hand to greet kids, parents, grandparents and toy train enthusiasts.
KEN BIANCO JR: Everybody likes Lionel. It's nostalgic.
LUNDEN: Ken Bianco Jr. is the third-generation owner of TrainLand and TrainWorld, the largest retailer of Lionel trains in the country.
BIANCO JR: This layout here has three different Lionel train sets on it running, and kids could operate the remotes over there. You see him pressing the horn (laughter).
(SOUNDBITE OF TOY TRAIN HORN HONKING)
LUNDEN: His dad, Ken Bianco Sr., says Christmas has always been the biggest and busiest time of the year, both in person and mail order.
KEN BIANCO SR: Lionel makes a whole catalog almost of Christmas items - Christmas sets, Christmas engines, Christmas cards, Christmas accessories. You can do just a layout of Christmas items, and it's spectacular.
LUNDEN: The company is celebrating its 125th anniversary through next year. When it started, electricity in homes was new, says Lionel CEO Howard Hitchcock.
HOWARD HITCHCOCK: It really all started with Joshua Lionel Cowan, who is the founder and for which the company is named. And he was sort of an inventor and a young man, very entrepreneurial and really was working with electric motors. And it was a fairly whiz-bang sort of toy.
LUNDEN: And technological innovation continues to this day. You've long been able to make steam come out of the train's smokestacks and play realistic sounds. Now you can operate your Lionel train from your smartphone.
BIANCO SR: The young kids today are on their phone 24/7. So Lionel said, if they're going to be on their phone, we want them to play with trains on their phone. So now with the Bluetooth setup Lionel has, they can play with their trains - multiple train sets on the layout.
LUNDEN: And Lionel's largest trains, called O Gauge, appeal not just to kids as a toy but to serious collectors, too.
BENJAMIN LAREMONT: I'm currently running gingerbread smoke fluid and also blueberry smoke fluid. But since it's Christmas, I'm heavy on the gingerbread this time of year.
LUNDEN: Benjamin Laremont, an aerospace engineer in the Atlanta area has more than 100,000 followers on his Instagram account, Ben's Trains. He says he got his first Lionel train when he was 8 years old, and he still has it.
LAREMONT: So my roster currently consists of about 47 engines. You know, I know there's people who have way more than that, but for me, that's where I'm at right now. That's subject to change in the next few weeks.
LUNDEN: Laremont invests in the high-end, highly detailed models and makes videos of them running on the tracks in his basement. But he hopes to purchase a Polar Express train set this season, one of the many brands that Lionel licenses. Ken Bianco Sr. of TrainLand says that set is the most popular with his customers.
BIANCO SR: Polar Express Christmas every year. The other Christmas sets do very well, too, but Polar Express is No. 1. And it has been for the last 20 years.
LUNDEN: Jack Martinek has been collecting for over 50 years, even though his Queens apartment is too small for a permanent layout. But where there's a floor, he says, there's a place to run Lionel trains.
JACK MARTINEK: I bring them out Christmas time. Fourth of July, I set up. Halloween, I set up. St. Patrick's Day, I set up. I got trees for every holiday (laughter).
LUNDEN: For its birthday bash, Lionel is putting out lots of new trains, including a "Star Wars"-themed set.
For NPR News, I'm Jeff Lunden in Lynbrook, Long Island.
(SOUNDBITE OF TOY TRAIN HORN HONKING) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
